Chapter 1

My first love, Caleb, knelt outside the Silver Citadel for seven days and nights. He did it just to break our soul-bond. He wanted to marry a human girl named Elara.

I was heartbroken, so I turned around and married Lucian, the King of the Shadow Court. He had chased me for a thousand years.

For three years, he treated me like his world. I finally got pregnant, but then I found a dark secret. He was putting an anti-fertility draught in my breakfast every single morning.

The pendant he never let anyone touch had Elara's nickname carved on the side. I was just a tool to protect his true love.

My Fire-Shifter blood was special. He wanted to use my child's essence to give Elara an immortal body. He wanted to save her from the pain of aging.

My tears fell like rain. I drank the fake-death potion. Lucian and I would never meet again.

...

"Aria, have you really made up your mind?" Lila, my maid, looked at me with red eyes. "The Shadowshade Root makes you look dead, but the pain is unbearable."

I smiled and swallowed the poison without a second thought. "I lost my baby. No pain can touch me now."

My child. I had waited for him so eagerly. But he never got to open his eyes to see the world.

I thought I had been careless during the pregnancy. I cried every day because of the guilt.

Then, my baby's last spark of spirit pulled me into a dream. That was when I saw the cruel truth.

My baby didn't die naturally. The moment he was born, his father took his soul-essence. He let our son wither away and die.

The most pathetic part was that I thought Lucian and I were happy. Before we married, he followed me for a thousand years.

Back then, I was the fiancée of Alpha Caleb. But Caleb only wanted the human girl.

Every time Caleb ignored me, Lucian was there. He gave me sweet words and comfort.

After we married, he wanted me every night. He said he wanted a child as soon as possible. I thought it was love.

But in that dream, I saw it all. He married me because I was the last of the Fire-Shifters.

He wanted a child just to use my bloodline for Elara. I was so stupid. I gave my heart to a monster.

My chest hurt so much I could not breathe. Blood leaked from my mouth, staining my white silk sleeves.

The Shadowshade Root was starting to work. For the next ten days, the pain would get worse.

I would get weaker until my heart stopped. I would enter a state of fake death.

"Aria!" Lila screamed and caught me before I hit the floor.

I tried to smile at her, but the door flew open. Lucian stood there, looking terrified.

"Aria! What's wrong? Why are you so weak?"

I wiped the blood away and lied. "I think I just haven't recovered from the birth. I will be fine."

Lucian frowned and pulled me into his arms. "You look like you are breaking. How can I not worry?"

He reached for my wrist to check my pulse. My heart raced.

If he checked me now, he would find the poison. Suddenly, the pendant on his belt started to glow.

His face changed instantly. "Aria, I just remembered something urgent. I will be back soon."

I watched him run away and finally breathed. I knew that "urgent business" was a lie.

That pendant was one of a pair. He gave the other one to Elara years ago.

Whenever she called his name, his piece would glow. Right now, he was rushing to her side.

He did not care about me at all. Lila was shaking with anger and crying for me.

I wiped her tears. "Don't cry. It's almost over."

In ten days, I would be free. And I would end everything.